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Fujitsu claims disk drive breakthrough

Six-fold capacity increase promised within four years

Fujitsu has developed a new technology to squeeze more data onto 2.5in hard drives, and claims that it will increase storage on the drives by a factor of six within the next four years.

The new read/write disk head enables recording densities of up to 300Gb per square inch, the firm said.

Current 2.5in hard disks can store around 30Gb per disk platter. According to Fujitsu, its technology will push this capacity to 180Gb per platter.

The electronics giant explained that it ultimately expects to achieve capacity of up to 360Gb, enough to carry 76 high-quality DVD movies.

Fujitsu said that the new technology uses Current-Perpendicular-to-Plane mode Giant Magneto-Resistive (GMR) heads.

Current heads use the Current-in-Plane mode but, by changing the angle of the head to the platter, Fujitsu maintains that it can achieve the increased capacity as the head becomes more sensitive to signals than existing GMR versions.

This means that data can be written and read three times more compactly than with current technology.

Fujitsu is also looking to supply the technology for disk drive-based consumer electronics products such as game consoles and personal video recorders.